An Abundance of Post-It Notes — The Most Underrated Way to Organize Your To-Do List

Post-It notes have long been a favorite of stationery fanatics and #studyinspo blogs and Instagrams. They have a seemingly endless amount of uses: studying, marking legal documents, and even as a tool for art, whether it’s a small square canvas to doodle and draw on or piecing together notes to form pictures. Warren Towers residents stick them onto their windows to convey messages and establish a certain kind of vibe. As I’m looking out of my window, some of the Post-It note creations I can spot are “Don’t visit :),” “I <3 L,” the Windows logo, and some choice words about the BU Hub.

I’ve experimented a lot with how to keep up with all my stuff. The second I got back from Spring Break, my planner has been full. My clubs and extracurriculars not only have routine engagements, but they hold some of their biggest events at the end of the year. My professors have somehow conspired to give all their “midterms” (by definition of the word, there can only be one midterm, but whatever) in the same span of time, and right before final exams too. I’ve been busy at work, and busy finding more work. (Just yesterday, I spent $28 on four pints of ice cream. That’s too much.)

Usually, I write in my planner or on my to-do list pad, but with the sheer amount of stuff I have to do, I’ve found that it’s not working for me. I don’t like how compact the writing is forced to be, and I need to be able to visualize that more. What better way to do that than with colorful sticky notes?

Photo credit: Carina Wang

This is what it looks like for me. I put them all on my mini dry erase board (another thing I’m obsessed with, but more on that later) and organize them loosely based on academics/serious to-dos, extracurriculars, and fun.

For me, it helps a lot that each item is on its own note, rather than being squished together on a to-do list.

I organize based on the type of action item, and then within them, I order them by due date/urgency. There are lots of different ways to sort through them — just by time works for some people, whether it’s a today/tomorrow/later situation or by the days of the week.

And if you’re someone who loves crossing things off your to-do list and you’re open to giving Post-It notes a try, you’re in for such a treat. Throughout the week, I cross off all the things I’ve done on the note itself and then on Sunday nights, I rip off the ones I’ve completed and I throw them into the recycling. It’s easily the most satisfying part of my week.

I’ve even done this in a mass snap I sent out to all my Snapchat streaks, and multiple people told me that even though they weren't the ones doing the ripping, it was still so satisfying to watch.

I promise, if you give this a try, you’ll completely forget about crossing things off a list with a pen. Post-It notes will ruin you for all other to-dos, and I’m okay with that.

Carina is a freshman at Boston University, studying in the College of Arts & Sciences as an English/psychology double major and an economics minor on a pre-law track. She loves coffee, sweater weather, shopping at Newbury Street, watching movies on the weekends, and everything millennial pink. Outside of Her Campus, she works on the Boston University Yearbook staff. In her free time, she enjoys creating and curating content for her studyblr. She's an ENFP and a Cancer (and loves anything related to personalities and astrology).